The sudden escalation of the situation when the wolf-like beast almost assaulted Silver had supposedly broken him out of a very important realization that would leave him at the checkpoint he was at now.
"Is this…this is not my…body?"
Looking back at everything he had experienced in one rundown in a quarter of an hour only made the absurdity of the situation even weirder.
"Dream…yes! This must be a dream."
When met with something that he never in his wildest dreams anticipated, his eighteen years old brain short-circuited back to the most consoling conclusion it could reach—A dream.
Silver, waking up amidst hellish waves of pain, found himself in the embrace of wild flora, potentially becoming food for a wolf-like beast who was actually on its last stretch due to a sword-like metal piece that injured it before.
"Yes..this is a dream…haha."
"..."
"…"
"Where the fuck am I?"
No, he knew he was deluding himself in order not to face the unknown subconsciously. He realized it too, gradually but surely.
"This is not my body…"
He decided to accept something he had figured out the moment when he looked at his pale white arms, only to put it in the very back of his mind.
Silver was an eighteen-year-old university freshman this year. He was at least six foot the last time he checked, His arms and legs jacked with broad shoulders and a toned body, Even though the pain made it difficult, he still should be able to feel the feeling in his body he had acquired over time working sweat and tears. That innate explosiveness was nowhere to be found.
The white flail arms and legs, the lack of that innate energy one experiences in a trained body. It was a far cry from it. The more he focused on all these disorientations, the more he found. Unfamiliar clothes, Unfamiliar marks on the body, and the disappearance of the familiar ones.
"If…if this is not a dream then…"
Gritting his teeth, he started moving. He held onto both hope and an unknown emotion, at least unknown to him.
Even when his body was telling him to stop and recuperate, he wouldn't, increasing his pace further.
He kept increasing his pace with every step that he would take and gradually started running. Running towards the place the wolf had come from. And he found what he was looking for.
"..."
"..."
"haha"
"hahaha"
"Hahahahahaha"
"Hahahahaha ack ack"
It started with mild laughter which then turned boisterous to the point he almost choked on his breath.
In front of him was a wide open area, littered on this clearing were several wolf-like beast corpses he had previously seen, mangled human corpses of various deformity, it was stimulating enough for Silver to cover his mouth from a gag but it didn't help, letting out what looked like pieces of bread and some unknown broth.
Staring blankly at the devastating sight in front of him again. He mumbled.
"This can't be a dream…I would've woken up a hundred times over from everything I experienced…"
Silver was not stupid, time after time after denying the possibility and a contradicting hope, he finally let the unknown emotion permeate through him.
Freedom— It was odd. In the midst of this inhumane chaos and a scene of deformed death. What he experienced was a feeling of something heavy enough to crush him, lifting off his flail shoulders.
This feeling...he didn't want to let go.
He sighed as he got up, all the pain that he felt from a moment ago was still there but he was too emotional to realize it.
"There's fire…and people?"
Looking at the distance, he spotted orange light and shadows moving in front of it. They were small and different from the shadows the fallen wolf-like beasts casted. They were definitely people.
"I should go there. It's still not safe around here seeing how the one that attacked me. Anyway…it should be safer around people."
Humans were social creatures, even more so in the time of crisis. Silver was no different.
He started making his way towards the light from the fire in the distance. The way was littered with beast and human corpses alike along with broken sword fragments. Yes, he was able to confirm it, They were definitely swords as they had proper hilts and edges.
The light became closer and closer and he was finally able to spot the humans that were all huddled up together in the center.
There was a lot of movement there. Few rough looking men in black clothes were dragging parts of the beasts towards the gathering.
At the very center, just beside the fire but sufficiently away from it were wooden carriages, with people going up and down continuously.
The more he saw, the more he understood. This place was definitely not normal, he was not sure how he got here or what would happen in the future. For now, all he wanted to do was to bring his body near that fire and lay down. The closer he got to that comfort, the more difficult it became to think of anything else.
His body was wounded too, as if thrashed here and there. There were cuts and wild bite marks and he was exhausted. He didn't even know if he'll survive but he didn't want to fall down now. Especially after he had seemingly obtained that one thing he always desired to have.
Throttling and strutting, he somehow reached the outer periphery and now was able to see the faces of the people there more clearly.
"Yifan…? Qaguydc ireihhb run sarke zaemrty?"
That is when he suddenly heard something behind his back and managed to turn around.
In black clothing that covered most of his body and the blood that covered the open area, with a sword smothered with blood in one hand, dripping, and a piece of what looked like a spine of a creature in the other hand dragged while being supported with his shoulders, stood a man with somewhat surprised expression.
Silver was not able to hear clearly what the man spoke but from the few words he heard, he understood a fact that would make his time here progressively more complex but for now…
"Zambye rtsg korfghy bot?"
Yep, he couldn't understand jack shit.
"Oi, Yifan!"
'Hmm? Yifan? Is this my name?'
Unfortunately, that was the lost thought he had before he fell down face forward under the not-so-shocked gaze of the man.
The pain and exhaustion had finally caught up to him to their full extent and this time, he would not be able to ignore it.
Bang!
Silver…Yifan fell unconscious under the scrutiny of the man who looked like he have had enough of this already.
***
"Ugh"
Slowly moving his eyes, Silver mumbled.
He was lying under the open sky which didn't show any signs of brightening any time soon.
'This is not a dream after all.'
He remembered that he had fallen unconscious the moment he spotted a black clothed man, looks like that man didn't leave him alone.
Silver looked down at his body. He was currently lying on a thin cloth, he had brown bandage-like clothes wrapped around him and from what it looked like, it probably had some medicinal herb or paste rubbed into it. He was definitely feeling a lot better than before. Though the pain was still there, he should be out of risk.
He glanced at his surroundings next, well he was not the only one here after all, which made sense. He guessed that this traveling troupe had been attacked by these wolf-like beasts, judging by all the carriages and caravan vehicles.
Lying all around him were many injured people like him, some worse and some in better conditions. There were faint movements exhibited by these people, they were clearly in pain and were uncomfortable.
'This must be the temporary infirmary, Why are we out in the open though?'
Staring at this scenery and confirming that he was not in any type of immediate danger, Silver laid back down again and started contemplating from the very start.
'I was in the Dellsworth estate clearly, I met the Desmo and signed the fucking document, I headed to my room and dismissed Roxy…Then I woke up here.'
He repeated the sequence of events he had been through just a few hours ago. As expected, he could clearly recall them all.
But then he focused again and again on something glaringly obvious, He didn't remember falling asleep, In fact Silver was never an early sleeper.
'I dismissed Roxy…that is the last thing I remember, but then what? Did I just fall asleep? But why don't I remember'
Silver didn't have any athletic activity that day so it didn't make sense. Sometimes on the days of an athletic workout, he would just pass out on bed in exhaustion but yesterday was just a normal day.
'There is a gap between the two. I don't remember anything that happened in between. It's like after dismissing Roxy, I somehow fell asleep and woke up here in that forest.'
After speculating for sometime, Silver was able to understand the blank memory between the last two events that he remembered.
'But…still, something. Something is just not right.'
Click
'I am missing…'
Click
'Something right in front of me…'
Click
'It's there…but I just can't grasp it.'
Click
'What is it?'
Click—
Crack!
Silver's eyes dilated as his vision suddenly blacked out.